Breath Into Me

Deacon Tom Writes,

Breathe Into Me

Third Sunday of Lent, Year A

A young man told me his conversion story a while ago when I was a prison chaplain in Connecticut. He needed some quick cash to pay off his gambling debts. So, he stopped by a bank to make a withdrawal. Small problem – his withdrawal slip was a pistol. While fleeing the bank the police responded appropriately by firing at him, unaware that his pistol was a BB gun. He was hit six times. As he lay dying, he says he saw the devil come to him and begin to “rip his soul out of his body”. Just when he thought he had drawn his last breath, he felt new life being breathed into him by Jesus and he heard Him say, “Get away Satan, this is a child of God”. This young man had been recovering for seven months when I met him and, after his recovery, which was still some time off, he would face a long prison sentence. That didn’t bother him because his profound encounter with Jesus had given him a new vision for his life; it has changed his life forever. He knows that God has a purpose for him and he is looking to find out just what it is.

Most of us look with skepticism at such extreme conversion experiences because they are over the top. Yet recall the words of Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” We fail at times to remember that God is mystery. We simply cannot grasp the great love He has for us that leads to His pursuing us all the time, through … “the labyrinth ways of my own mind; and in the midst of tears” as Francis Thompson wrote in his poem, The Hound of Heaven. God is like a bloodhound, always tracking us down, right there beside us when we stumble and fall.

Today’s gospel is about this very point. Jesus goes out of His way to engage this Samaritan woman. The Samaritans and the Jews are religious enemies who hated and loathed each other because they differed on the proper way to worship God. (Some things never change!!) Jesus intentionally crosses the barriers of hostility to encounter this woman. He meets her in the midst of the crises of her life; in the middle of her life that has been filled with broken relationships, disappointment, alienation from her community; and He breathes new life into her, and through her, He animates the entire village.

By necessity we need to be advocates for those who are trying to put their lives back together after they stumble and fall. It is through their stories and their witness that we come to know the mystery of God’s love for us, His readiness to breathe new life into us. No matter what we do. No matter how far we run or from how high we fall. 

I believe we all have profound conversion stories of how God has come to us through our failures and brokenness. Perhaps, as we continue on our Lenten journey, we can reflect on how God is calling us to use these encounters to help Him breathe new life into others too.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom